Despite cold weather and periods of rain on Friday and Saturday,
the American Cancer Society’s 2006 Relay for Life was an
overwhelming success, surpassing its fundraising goal of
$99,000.

“It went very well,” Dorie Meabon, Relay for Life committee
member, said Sunday. “We met our goal. We made over $106,000. This
is the first time in several years we actually made our goal.”

The money raised at the event will go to help fund cancer
research as well as regional programs and patient services.

Meabon said she thought the Temple-Inland team raised the most
money with about $17,000 raised overall. The Bank for Life team
came in second and the Georgia Pacific team, third.

“Also, the rookie team this year was Kathy’s Designers. We had
six brand new teams, which I think is a record for us,” Meabon
said. “We had 28 teams with an average of 12 people to a team. That
night for the survivors’ ceremony and luminaria, we probably had
between 2,000 and 2,500 people even with the weather. Almost
everybody’s team was there for the luminaria service.

“The last I knew we had over 900 luminaries, which was
phenomenal,” Meabon said, noting this was a jump from the more than
700 they had last year.

“We’re thrilled to death with the turnout even with the weather
being as cold and as miserable as it was,” she added. “It did warm
up and get sunny just as we were wrapping things up. Even the
amount of people that stayed during the night (was great). We were
very pleased with everything overall.”

The turnout was really great considering the periods of
downpours during the event. However, rain did seem to affect just a
few aspects.

“The rain slowed down activities for the opening ceremonies with
some downpours at time,” Meabon said. “I think it also took away
from the amount of people that spent the night since it was so cold
and rainy.”

One of the new events this year was The Wall of Hope banner,
sponsored locally by Zippo Manufacturing Co. and W.R. Case &
Sons Cutlery Co. and nationally by the Discovery Health Channel,
FedEx Corp. and Walgreens. The banner was available at the event
for people to sign or write a message on.

“The Wall of Hope banner was quite full with signatures,” Meabon
said. “We encouraged everyone to sign it. We left the banner out
all night in the skating rink, and people left messages and signed
names.”

The banner will be taken to Washington, D.C., in September for
the Celebration on the (Capitol) Hill to lobby for more cancer
research funding. All of the Pennsylvania banners will be stacked
three high along with more than 200 other banners from all across
the country to form a memorial wall.

Along with the banners, each state is to send a story of a
cancer survivor, and Pennsylvania has chosen Mary Egger from Elk
County.

Egger was diagnosed with Leukemia in the 1990s and had a bone
marrow transplant. She then went into remission until 2002, when it
came back. Doctors were pessimistic about another bone marrow
transplant, but because of a new drug the American Cancer Society
helped develop, she was able to beat the Leukemia once again.

Meabon said the food court with teams providing food along with
Buck’s Pizza, the Runway Caf_ and The New Broaster, was also new
for them since their concession stand had not worked well the past
few years.

“I talked to a couple of people in the food court,” Meabon said.
“Some of these teams did exceptionally well. The one that sold the
beverages, they did exceptionally well, (making probably about)
$1,200 the last time I checked. They were selling coffee and tea,
which helped keep people warm, which is great. Most of them were
encouraged to come back. Hopefully, next year it will be bigger …
with all actual teams. If we don’t, then we’ll invite some of the
vendors back.”

Meabon, who along with her husband Jon, will be chairing the
13th annual Relay for Life next year, said the craft vendors, also
new to this year’s event, also did very well.

“There was one that was disappointed,” she said. “Next year,
we’re hoping to encourage more craft vendors for inside the rink.
We’re hoping to get more people inside the skating rink since with
the weather it gives them something to do to get out of the rain
and participate.”

Tickets for two raffles were being sold at the Relay. One of the
raffles – held by Kids with Cancer – was for a 2006 Harley Davidson
Fat Boy motorcycle, and the other raffle was for a carving of a
bear. The winner of the bear raffle was announced Saturday, but the
motorcycle winner will be announced during the Zippo/Case
International Swap Meet.

Meabon said the new Web site for the Bradford Relay for Life,
where “out-of-towners” or people unable to make the event could
make donations, found a little less success than the actual
event.

“If I remember correctly, we had 16 or 17 registered,” Meabon
said. “We hope to expand on that next year and get the youth more
involved – the younger members on the teams. I think our goal
online was $14,000, and we only raised $3,000.”